As the number of people living on the streets has risen and homeless encampments have spread across Southern California, the Los Angeles City Council has worked to speed the process by which officials can collect homeless people’s possessions from sidewalks and parks.
The council approved a measure on Tuesday that would reduce the warning time the homeless are given when confiscating certain items from 72 hours to 24.
When city workers impound homeless people’s stuff, it ends up at a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. It’s kept on shelves in a corner behind a locked gate.
“We store the property. We keep it safe and clean,” says Alex Conedy, the facility’s project manager. “For whatever it is and whoever it belongs to, it’s important to them. So we treat it as such.”